According to Google, a media outlet that has old content is akin to selling out-of-date food at a grocery store. It’s a big no-no and, if caught perpetrating this type of content, it will be punished by receiving a significant drop in search engine visibility - and rightly so.
Falling Off the First Page and More of Search Results
While we know Google has been a naysayer about old content for some time and raised the bar on what defines good content by going after content farms, companies with static websites, and even big brands like eBay, this move to strike out at some of the biggest publishing brands in the industry, including Apple, The Washington Post, Time and The New York Times, tells us Google is at it again by making major changes to its algorithm. Some of the bigger hits included a nearly 80% drop in SEO visibility for TheAtlantic.com and a 65% reduction in mobile visibility for Wired.com.
While this information can’t be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt as the root cause, there are some signs that branded search results are getting overhauled, including Google’s own Gmail messaging system, which has also seen its mobile visibility search results lowered. Some may have suspected that these radical changes were a signal that Google had rolled out its mobile-friendly algorithm earlier than its expected May unveiling, but Google’s response was that this coincidence is not related.
At first, it appeared that just the mobile visibility of these media companies had fallen while the desktop search engine rankings remained the same. However, in revisiting these media rankings for the same keywords, they also have now taken the same plunge, according to findings from Searchmetrics.
The Push for New and Differentiated Content
"Google was serious about ensuring companies migrated to the focus on new and differentiated content rather than relying on existing content to maintain its search engine rank." Shai Aharony founder of Reboot Online told me last week at and SEO conference as we chatted about the industry. The idea is that content should really be new, and fresh, not repurposed from old content with just a word or two changed or paragraphs rearranged and enhanced with a couple new statistics. Aharony later told me "These statistics seem to point to the fact that it’s pretty hard to fool Google anymore."
With that in mind, companies need to start focusing on building out more in-depth and specialized content marketing strategies for their brands that also extend to their social media content, links, and apps. Some ideas for these media brands as well as company brands include:
- Generate new research through surveys and interviews with industry experts and target audiences within those segments.
- Partner with university or private research companies to identify further areas that could provide new industry insights.
- Find customer stories to convert into engaging content, offering this type of more authentic approach also enhances and differentiates the brand.
- Collect the ideas and thoughts of many SEO industry leaders to highlight new findings that can be shared.
These are just some of the ways that all brands that are seeking more leads from mobile and desktop searches can satisfy Google as the company continues to raise the bar on what it expects from content.
